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Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Talk to the Rohan: Exclusive Q&A with Producer Rohan Tarry

It was my pleasure to have the opportunity ~ arranged via Barbara Sobel ~ to interview dance music producer (and English gentleman) Rohan Tarry. In a world that may, sometimes, seem full of "cookie cutter" music producers, Mr Tarry is a discriminating, individualistic and sometimes eclectic, frequently brilliant independent figure in the business. Ten years ago, Rohan Tarry was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and he speaks frankly about it here and its impact on his musicianship. This is a remarkable interview I hope you will read and share.

Dj Buddy Beaverhausen: Hello, Rohan and happy holidays to you and your family.
Do you have any special plans for celebrating this time of year?

Rohan Tarry: Thanks, and
season's greetings to you and yours. Some quiet local family time in Bristol is
the order on Xmas day. Between Xmas and New Year, it'll be catching up with some
friends, then a trip to my mum's magical place on Dartmoor for some Devon
family time deep in the tranquil English countryside. Oh, and Xmas coffee
aplenty. Coffee where the milk and sugar is replaced with Baileys Irish Cream.
Mmmm.....

DBB: Sounds good to me. You're a life-long resident of Bristol, UK. What were your
musical influences growing up there?

RT: I grew up in Exeter (a small provincial
city in SW England) but the Bristol music scene has been hugely important to me
since I first lived here back in '89. The emergence of the "Bristol sound" at
the turn of the '90's taking on influences from early dance music, hip-hop and
reggae (i.e., Portishead + Massive Attack) ticked all the boxes for me and opened
my ears to different ways of making music.

DBB: When did you know you wanted to
work in the music industry?

RT: I was fascinated by it at school but they steered
me towards a scientific career. It wasn't till I was working as a medical
biochemist in a hospital lab in the early 90's that I really thought I could
give it a go. Started by playing flute with house DJ's, something I did
throughout the 90's with some of the biggest names in British clubland. Doing
an evening course in music tech in about '92 introduced me to using computers
to make music. Back then it was an Atari ST and Cubase v.2 but I was hooked by
the idea. I started my first studio kind of by accident. I found somewhere to
put my home studio which happened to be in a building which included some
rehearsal rooms. Before I knew it I was running a commercial studio!

DBB: Pretty amazing! Tell
us about RexKwondo and what you have on your professional plate right now that
we can look forward to.

RT: RexKwondo is a project with my long-term finest friend
and hugely talented musician, Tony 'T-Bone' Psarelis. It started with us just
hanging out in the studio, sharing our love of electronic influenced music from
the 80's forward. Before long, we both realized that we had a lot in common
musically and started writing together. It was never our intention to sound
like anyone else except perhaps in touches of our influences. A particular
shared love of Tears For Fears and their use of synths and more traditional
instruments to craft ace songs undoubtedly had an impact. The way we write is, I
think, somewhat unique in our approach to sound sources, whether it's a synth,
guitar, vocals, samples (from the thousands of random records in the studio),
strings or woodwind and brass. If it feels right to us we use it or play
it. Okay, so it means we've never quite fitted with whatever the musical
zeitgeist is but hey, being like everyone else is overrated. We've had to scale
things back as MS has impacted more heavily on me which means our, at best
times slow, work-rate has diminished somewhat. As a result this year we plan to
release some stuff, like Kamikaze Love, that we feel got overlooked in the past
but also have a number of new songs we're working on which will get an airing
in '14.

DBB: I understand that Sobel Nation recently remixed a charity record
you did. Could you talk to us about that?

RT: MS has had an increasingly
detrimental effect on me in the 10 years since diagnosis. The studio is my
refuge from it. Music is the finest therapy I know. When locked in and making
music, the troubles of the outside world, and largely my failing health,
disappear. The worst thing is that as MS has gotten hold of me, my ability to
play instruments and put in the hours required to keep it running have been
impaired to the point where I can no longer afford it. This came up in conversation
with the charming Barbara Sobel to which she said "..I can do something about
that...'" The idea to do a charity record to help support me came straight from
her beautiful, caring mind. The response, and it's swiftness, frankly bowled me
over! To have such great people as Coco Star (providing an ace vocal), Guru
Josh Proiect and Mike Jolly onboard from the getgo is rather humbling. Tony and
I have been working on a RexKwondo mix too so it should be a fabulous package

DBB: What do you think about the state of dance music today?

RT: "Dance
music" has become, over the last 20 years, such a fragmented genre that is
seems somewhat incongruous to talk about it as one thing. Throughout this time,
it has come to be a staple of the global music scene. There is so much variety
of style that it's become a raft of genres in their own right. Across the board
there is good and bad, as with any music. There is now so much out there that
we really rely more than ever on good DJ's with decent quality filters to help
discern which deserves our attention.

DBB: I was listening to your work with
Tara Busch and Maf Lewis as Dynamo Dresden (album available at iTunes). Very
soothing, beautifully composed and dreamy. Fair to say, I don't think this was
produced with big room peak hour in mind. What sound or genre were you working
in; who do you think would be the ideal audience for Dynamo Dresden? I see the
term "trip-hop" is used on the Soundcloud page (where one can hear
these marvelous tracks). And are those dolphins I hear sampled in the mix on
some tracks or is it all electronic?

RT: The
Dynamo Dresden album, Remember, is something I'm really proud of. Working with
such a towering vocal talent as Tara Busch and the inimitable force of nature
that is Maf Lewis was, mostly, a true privilege. It was always very much a
post-club sound we were going for. "Trip-hop" is just the genre that had the
closest fit and people like to attach such labels . We were happy to let the DJ
remixers do what they're best at and provide some proper dancefloor mixes
although we often toughened the sound in live performance. The "dolphin" sounds
are a mixture of synth and Tara playing a theremin.

RT: Deciding
on band names is always something of a challenge. In the end, I've found the
only way is to go for something that rolls off the tongue nicely. Dynamo
Dresden were named after an East German soccer team that Maf was a fan of.
RexKwondo came after a number of poor names which I won't afflict on you. It
had become rather a sticking point but one night in the studio after a couple
of glasses of wine and some combustible comestibles we watched the marvelous
Napoleon Dynamite and there it was.

DBB: What was the first song you ever
produced?

RT: This
is a tough question as I've been at it so long! I bought a cassette 4-track at
18 which would have been my first attempts. I think only my mum has copies of
that stuff which is just one more reason, of many, to always be nice to my mum!
Have worked with all kinds of people over the years from Motorhead to Kylie
Minogue and everything in between. Probably the best known thing is a track I
produced in about 2001for a DJ friend of mine, Jean Jacques Smoothie, called "2
People."

DBB: Rohan, thank you for your time and effort in answering these
questions. Is there anything you'd like to shout out to our readers around the
world that perhaps I didn't cover? Wishing you a very happy New Year!

RT: Thanks
for asking me. Very
excited about the forthcoming charity single. Becoming part of the Sobel Family
has helped me turn '14 from what looked rather bleak into a much more
potentially chirpy and bright year. Tony and I have found a way of working
remotely, me in the studio in Bristol and him in London, which should help
ensure there's plenty RexKwondo to come. Happy
New Year to you all and may '14 bring you love and happiness by the bucket
load!